We realized quality web design should be accessible to all.

In 2015, our founder Nabil’s mom needed a website for her small business. She considered hiring an agency, but that involved hefty costs, and she quickly noticed a lack of quality with freelancers.

Then a tech-savvy middle schooler, Nabil thus took it upon himself to work on her digital marketing in an effort to learn more about the space and make the most of a pretty chill summer. Curious about the world of the Internet, he thus built his first website for his mom with a drag & drop builder.

Nabil learned a lot from that one website. He taught himself graphic design and digital marketing through YouTube and ultimately picked up some CSS/HTML. That was awesome, but he quickly realized that the industry he was developing an interest in was plateauing for small business owners. Agencies remained inaccessible, freelancers were often unreliable, and DIY solutions, although addressing the cost/quality tradeoff, weren’t feasible. No matter how small the learning curve was, drag & drop builders required time & effort, which would be diverted from actually growing the business the website was being built for.

Nonetheless, in the summer of 2016, with free time on his hands, Nabil posted an ad on a local classifieds board promoting his student-rate web design services. A few moments later, he got a call from a Montreal doctor who somehow entrusted a high-pitched voice on the phone with his digital marketing (Nabil was 14, and so was his voice). With the one website he had built for his mom’s business, Nabil had gotten his first paying web design client! Despite greatly undercharging, NAB Design – called NAB Design Services at the time – was born.

Fortunately, some clients followed, but Nabil still had to differentiate NAB Design from established players – he wasn’t an agency or a freelancer. By age 15, he thus channelled his inner tech geek and envisioned our Unified Approach to creative digital services. Similar to how big tech companies integrate hardware and software (and now even services), Nabil’s approach consisted of one entity simultaneously handling all creative digital services a business needs. By eliminating intermediaries and the need for repetitive communication and transfer of assets, the approach gained traction and made creative services more efficient and accessible. It was even truer to brands as they trusted that NAB Design consistently knew what they stood for.

From restaurant chains to up-and-coming fashion brands, additional clients entrusted NAB Design with their customer experiences, and every new project was a different adventure. An idea was turned into a fruitful reality – for businesses of all sizes.

Today, as the NAB Design team & impact grow, our Unified Approach remains at the core of our larger marketing projects, but we have focused on our bread and butter: strategic website design & development of agency-level quality at freelancer-level care and pricing.

A relentless focus on accessibility without compromise, made possible through genuine care and data-driven optimization – that’s NAB Design.